10 Michael Fassbender Performances That Left Us Speechless

4) Prometheus

How to play an android that wants to be human? That’s the challenge Fassbender faced when he took the part of Prometheus‘ David, a machine that thinks (and schemes) like a person, but is fundamentally a piece of high-tech equipment. It’s a part Fassbender went out of his way to prepare for – he learned to move like Greg Louganis, and act like Bowie, Bogarde, and O’Toole – and it resulted in one of his most paradoxically alive and vibrant performances.

What’s so brilliant about Fassbender’s interpretation of David is how he brings a vanity, sadism, and Machiavellian craftiness to a part that isn’t even defined particularly clearly on the page. Only rarely are actors praised for impressing in sci-fi movies, but critics went out of their way to laud Fassbender in Prometheus; maybe it’s because he walked away with this one, still managing to stand out amidst all the film’s big ideas and extraterrestrial mayhem.